Green Dragon
s are chromatic dragons. Personality Few dragons are as utterly reviled among humanoids as green dragons, known also as forest dragons. Although green dragons might not be as powerful or as destructive as some of their kin, they are innately and instinctively deceptive. They lie as easily as people speak, and they are good at it. They love intrigue and prefer to achieve their goals through guile and double-dealing over any other means. Any brute can hunt, but it takes skill and intelligence to trick one’s prey into offering itself for dinner. Adding this attitude to a green’s belligerent nature—to a green dragon, a weak creature is either prey or pawn, and nearly all creatures are weak—makes the creature a loathsome, conniving beast. Green dragons are among the chromatics most likely to interfere with nearby humanoid communities. Some greens terrorize their neighbors into obedience. Others play and experiment with local political and mercantile interests. A green dragon might use bribes and intimidation to gain the cooperation of a few select members of a community and then see how much authority it can obtain by proxy before other humanoids discover its minions. Greens might not have lofty goals for this sort of manipulation; they enjoy the process and the practice for its own sake. Green dragons might negotiate peaceful coexistence with their neighbors, as long as territories and resources do not overlap. Anyone entering into such an arrangement, however, should do so with great care. Green dragons take devilish delight in finding loopholes in such agreements. Green dragons prefer sentient mammalian prey over any other kind. Because obtaining such prey can be difficult, however, greens subsist mostly on woodland creatures, such as deer, bears, and wolves. Perhaps because their terrain often has a canopy of vegetation, green dragons fight equally well on wing and on land. When battling on or near the ground, greens attack from the cover of trees or from hidden contours of the earth. Woodland obstacles impede humanoid foes’ ranged attacks more than they impede green dragons’ area attacks. Green dragons frequently patrol their terrain, flying above the canopy and stalking through the underbrush. They do this primarily to locate intruders but also to know every little feature of and change to their territory. They learn every possible path, hiding place, and refuge. This preparation makes them more effective hunters and offers them means of retreat if any battles turn against them. Lairs and Terrain Green dragons prefer areas of thick vegetation. By far, they prefer temperate and cold forests to steamy jungles and nonforested land. They particularly favor woods with large and imposing trees—the older and more massive, the better. Greens might accept smaller woods as less desirable alternatives, as well as jungles and overgrown bogs. When a green dragon cannot find any suitable forest or woodland, it might settle for an area of rolling hills or similar terrain, using slopes and valleys for cover and concealment in the same way that its more fortunate cousins use the trees of the forest. Green dragons prefer caves in forested hills and cliffsides for their lairs. Where they cannot find such convenient openings, they might topple the mightiest of trees into great heaps and make their homes in the hollows of these wooden hills. Some green dragons even lair inside the trunks of the largest, fey-touched trees. Favored Treasure Although green dragons covet any treasure, they particularly like hand-crafted items ranging from sculpture and artwork to ornate swords and magic armor. They love to own anything into which someone else put a lot of work. Though a dragon might not force a crafter to create art, the wyrm takes satisfaction in ultimately benefiting from an artisan’s creative labor. Green dragons also like to keep large supplies of coins and small gems at hand for suborning merchants or members of local communities. Though as loath to part with their wealth as any other dragons, greens might consider bribes worthwhile investments if they feel that particularly well-placed agents will ultimately bring them greater power or amusement. Life Cycle :Also see: Dragon Life Cycle Green dragons lay their eggs after about four months of a sixteen-month incubation period. They lay clutches of three to five eggs, with an average of two to four hatching successfully under optimal conditions. The wyrmling stage lasts approximately six years. Green dragons reach adulthood around age 160 and become elders after their 950th year. A truly ancient green dragon has lived for at least 1,750 years, give or take a century. The oldest known green dragon lived for approximately 2,250 years. The environmental diffusion of a deceased green dragon results in an area of lush, beautiful, and deadly plant growth. Grasses, trees, and other vegetation, nearly all of them poisonous, grow swiftly to abnormally large size. These areas also touch on the Feywild more often than do other parts of the woodlands. Physical Characteristics The various hues of a green dragon’s scales allow it to blend in easily with foliage, an ability that greens enhance by allowing their scales to become scarred, tarnished, and, in some cases, mossy. As with black dragons, green dragons do not use their prominent horn as a weapon. Instead, they primarily use their nose spike to push foliage and branches out of the way as they move through their overgrown domains. The crown of horns jutting from a green dragon’s head keeps obstacles it has pushed aside with its nose spike from springing back into its face and obstructing its view. Notorious Individuals Cyan Bloodbane Of all the green dragons that ever lived, few are as despised as Cyan Bloodbane. Gifted with a keen intellect and a knack for manipulation that far outstripped the cunning of his peers, he exploited his talents to advance his standing in the eyes of his dread mistress, Tiamat. Cyan is exceptionally selfish, capable of any malicious act to further his agenda and to improve his prestige with the Dark Lady. Above all, Cyan detests humanoids, seeing them as weak and unworthy. He takes special pleasure in tormenting elves, wrecking their minds with his filthy whispers. Massive yet sleek, powerful but with slender limbs and a long, thin neck, Cyan Bloodbane has more in common physically with a mirage dragon than he does with a typical green dragon. His appearance might lead an observer to think him sickly or weak—a mistake any individual makes only once. Cyan’s scales darken toward the middle of his back, giving way to light green and brown bands across his middle. He has no flared ridge, his head instead smooth and snakelike. Barbels hang like whiskers from his snout and chin, delicate sensory organs designed to help scent enemies and food. His eyes are black except in the presence of light, when they reveal a reddish hue that speaks to his wickedness. Though he is believed to be long dead, Cyan Bloodbane remains a dark presence in the minds and hearts of elves, evoking terror with the mere whisper of his name. Elves follow up on even sketchy rumors to ensure that their great enemy never returns to their lands. Cyan’s unsavory reputation stems from his part in the first movements of an old war between the forces of Tiamat and her longtime enemy Bahamut. He did not want to be involved in the brimming conflict but knew his reluctance would mean his destruction: If Tiamat won, she would punish those who failed her, and if Bahamut proved victorious, no place would be safe for chromatic dragons. Rather than endure the pain and agony of war, he sought other means to aid his queen. The opportunity Cyan sought was revealed when an old elf king, fearing that the conflict would spill into his ancient woodland nation, turned to an artifact of great power: an Orb of Dragonkind. By using the Orb, he called on Cyan to attend the elf leader. Cyan could have killed the desperate elf, and in doing so could have weakened his people enough to make them vulnerable to attack, but the dragon had other plans. Cyan seduced the old king, whispering venomous advice backed by empty promises and false hopes. He offered to help the king protect his people and suggested that the lord unleash the magic of the artifact. In doing so, the elf king suffused his land with raw power and became a prisoner of the dragon’s poisonous lies. Cyan twisted the king’s mind, forcing him to shape the magic into his deepest fears and transform his ancient kingdom into a land of terrifying nightmares. Before Cyan could complete his work, a group of heroes battled through the shades of the elf king’s fears and defeated him. The dragon escaped, though, and harbors a burning hatred for the heroes who beat him and for the elves who escaped his evil. Cyan Bloodbane has no love for the contests between dragons and avoids confrontations with his kin. On occasion, he might ally with an archmage or a similar powerful mortal as long as it supports his own goals. Such arrangements rarely last for long—Cyan is a treacherous creature who betrays an ally in an instant for a better bargain. In recent years, Cyan has begun to attract followers, some who have found him and taken instructions directly from the green dragon, and others who know of Cyan only from stories but who wish to become associated with such a great power nonetheless. In most cases, green dragons are the nucleus of such groups. Category:Dragon Category:Chromatic Dragon